Tokyo Nikkei 225 down 0.09% at 38,596 points (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Tokyo , 21 Jun - Japanese shares closed marginally lower, halting a three-day winning streak amid weak Asian markets.

Uncertainty about the Bank of Japan's policy path continued to keep sentiment in check as investors digested data showing that Japan's demand-led inflation slowed in May, complicating the outlook for interest rate hikes.

The Bank of Japan last week left interest rates unchanged as widely expected but unexpectedly signalled no near-term changes to its bond buying program. It said it will unveil a plan to start cutting bond purchases at its next meeting at the end of July.

The BoJ hiked rates for the first time in 17 years in March, bringing them out of negative territory.

Also on the data front, the consumer price index in Japan rose 0.4%, the same rate of change as in April, and rose an annual 2.8%, accelerating from the 2.5% seen in the earlier month, according to data released by the Statistics Bureau of Japan.

Also on the data front, in June, Japan's purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector fell to 50.1 from 50.4 in May, according to preliminary data released by S&P Global and its partner au Jibun Bank.

The manufacturing output index rose to 50.5 from 49.9 and the PMI for the services industry fell to 49.8 from 53.8. The composite output index, a weighted average of services PMI and manufacturing output, slipped to 50.0 from 52.6.

The Nikkei index closed down 0.09% at 38,596 points.

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(RADIOCOR) 21-06-24 08:47:48 (0163) 5 NNNN